White House Qualifies Obama Remark About Arrest

The White House says President Obama was not calling a Cambridge, Mass., police officer stupid when he criticized last week's arrest of black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thursday that Obama felt "cooler heads on all sides should have prevailed" once the officer realized Gates was in his own home.

On Wednesday Obama said the police "acted stupidly" when they arrested Gates even after it was clear that he was not a burglary suspect. Gibbs said that Obama did not regret the remark, but wanted to clarify that he was not calling the arresting officer stupid.